A leaf from my Travelogue

A Boatman's Hi-fi

I lay still on my back as I watched an eagle hovering some 10 metres above. Its wide wings stretched Glider-like, heavy grey clouds in the background...


The icy cold water touching my feet. "Chin up... keep your arms wider" I hear Mahendra instruct with his typical Nepalese accent.



This was in the training pool, learning how to float with life jackets ON . We were at Tata Tea Estate in Coorg; River rafting for the first time.



We spent a good 20 minutes in the pool learning our positions, about how to row forwards and backwards, what to do if you fall into the water, what NOT to do.. Our ever-smiling tutor patiently going over the safety measures.

As we set out of the training pool to brave the wild river, we all exchanged smiles - somewhere between nervous and excited. Our trainer egged us excitedly . We had to cross 5 rapids. One class two and the others Class 3 rapids. We did a boatman's Hi-Fi - Oars together and yelled "LaLapati Jap Jap". Now, that's a supposed chant word which Mahendra taught us. Whatever it meant, it buoyed our spirits for sure :)


At the call of "All forwards" we rowed in sync till we reached the boulder where the river took a swift turn between boulders - our first rapid. We said hello to "Good Morning Coffee". Yes. The rapids are baptised too :). We held onto the rope tied to our boat as the current carried us through the boulders and our boat plunged into the waters..."Ooooh..." we exulted even as our boat stayed afloat.


It felt amazing..couldn't wait for the second one-The Grasshopper. We knew what it meant. The pathway was riddled with boulders and the waters leapt from one to another. We were instructed to go down on our knees and hold the rope as we hit the rapid. I can still feel the splash of water. We were Wowing even with our teeth clattering as we drifted to the calmer edges.


At the next rapid we did what is known as "surfing". This meant that we go against the waves and "surf" as the boat rocks left to right. This was scary but exhilarating and we were screaming our throats off. Phew! The final "Big Bang", as the rapid is called, left us asking for more.


Truly worth every penny spent for all the fun we had. Would suggest this to anybody who is heading anywhere near Coorg. Its the coolest and the safest place and all thanks to our coach Mahendra for making it an amazing experience.

Labyrinth - Kate Mosse

Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse

I picked up this book when I was enticed by the notion of Holy Grail, thanks to The Da vinci code. Believe me, it sure surpassed my expectation.

Meet Dr. Alice Tanner, who is taking part in an architechtural dig. She accidentally opens a cave which is ancient and like always holds many secrets- a couple of skeletons to begin with which then leads to things far sinister. Now meet Alais, who is entrusted with 3 sacred books which she is to gaurd as Languedoc is under seige. The army proceeds to take hold of the city as it believes to have given refuge to the so called heretics but their motive is to take cutody of those 3 books which hold secret powers.The story of these two ladies proceeds parallely and 800 years apart in time. Their fate tied together in a strange fashion. Alice is in grave danger and she has no clue what her pursuers want. Then she meets the only person who knows both these ladies, whose years of long wait culminates in a dramatic fashion. The author has the arduous task of taking the reader through the troubled era of crusades and link it to present day france with a fine narration and intriguing plot. The book being set in two different eras, the author resorts to the use of the archaic occitan lingo for the older era.Thus ensuring that you do not lose your way in the Labyrinth.

A very fascinating read and the 700 odd pages do justice to your patience.

My Debut in Kitchen

If nothing, it takes a lot of patience to cook the right meal. My frustration was at its peak when 3 of 4 Dosas came out in 6 pieces! Barked a few abuses to myself and braced for the 5th.

Somehow all this reminds me of Harry Potter's Potions class.
Stir twice, wait till its "Golden Brown"...Put in only so much as you can smell. Not more not less!
:) I'd love to be in Snape's class....

So here I was, in kitchen for most part of the day. My routine being cook, wash, clean..cook, wash, clean. But it felt good when in the end you watch people eat what you made. And it only proved one thing - They dint want to let me down. My gran noted that it wasn't salty enough. But my dad and bro still munched it with no complaints.

Well, Its not easy to get it all right. And its not like you are cooking for yourself...Maybe I make a bad cook but I love it!

Weekend

I had written this sometime back but nevertheless I post it now and here:

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Weekened!!
Lots of things running in my mind so wondering wat really merits a write up.
The beginning of the week i was musing abt the words that had impact on me. Bits n pieces of poetry that influcenced me, inspired me since childhood. Then the mid week crisis hit upon me and I wanted to do something about my life. The stuck-in-the-rut feeling began to sap all the energy in me. Then came saturday and the TOI crest edition with well written articles that kept me engaged. Then the sunday times with my ever favorite columnists and I was caught in their web of words.

Then, it so happened that i was checking out my friend's CV. Page full of impressive achievement and somewhere a mention of how he finds interacting with people interesting and beneficial. I have never involved myself in anything i can proudly recount and that sinking feeling of being aware of my mediocrity, about my inability to do anything apart from the said - reading. It reminded me how boring i have become. Well not sure if thats what an introvert's life is like. An introvert takes a lot of time to interact with people. I am selective about the people I open up to. Not that I sulk and frown at a gathering but i tend to keep my mouth shut unless spoken to. This is wat triggered a debate within myself.

Am I shutting the beautiful world out? Is my non interaction the root cause of my boredom?
Can I fix it? 

Five times five

And soon I will turn 25.
At this point, there are too many things to ponder about.



25 whole years and still upto nothing. If anything my potential is waning my abilities dwindling and feels like surrendering myself to life. Am moving no step further.

Did I gossip? Did I not??

Some scars in life have no date etched upon them. And none of mine have.Much of my problems in life are cause of my un-eidetic memory.

A person X told person Y that she overheard me and a person Z laughing about him(viz Y).

Y was obviously upset cause both I and Z were his good friends. He did not however confront either me or Z about it. He kept it to himself. He forgot and forgave us both.

I got to know this much later. Having been forgiven by Z for a mistake I am not even aware makes me feel sour even after years. I was believed to have been scoffing at my own friend.

I have always hated people who backbite, people who do not stand upto their friends when they are not around. I believe that a true friend is not someone who appreciates you in front of you, its someone who can speak for you when you are not around. I always thought I did that. I always thought I was loyal to my friends. That was, infact, the only thing I was happy about myself.

And here was I, doing the very same. Did I really do it? Would I have really done it? Thats where my memory fails. I do not recall what the topic was nor what we were joking about. I sometimes feel compelled to ask Z what we were joking about. Let me tell you Z has quite a good memory. But I am not sure if Y wants Z to know about how he felt.

I want to know what we both were joking about. If its true I want to avoid making such jokes again and if not I can sleep with a better conscience. Every minute I feel indebted to Y's kind act and every minute I hate myself for hurting such a nice person. I hate myself cause I gossiped behind someone's back. I gossiped about my own friend


So when I am not even sure if I gossiped or not, I can't clarify to my friend nor dare face myself.

Sometimes Fship is all about staying away... Really??

Alex and Marty. The best of friends.

The friendship of a lion and a zebra, how long would it last? Till the starved lion pounces on the zebra?

Alex bites Marty driven by hunger, oblivious to the fact that its Marty, his best friend. The very next moment he realises it but its late. He has scared Marty.

How could he do that to his friend? What was he thinking he was doing? Why dint he realise? How could he lose his mind? Alex is scared and all confused as to how to set things right with Marty again.

That happened when Alex was hungry. And that also happens when I get angry. I have hurt too many people. Pleading sorry? I have done that so often and have sadly repeated things again.

Alex runs away from Marty and finds a cave. The most poignant scene I have ever come across. It depicts self-castigation in a single frozen frame. Shown simply with Alex cowering behind a boulder surrounded by huge poles with sharp ends and all the sharp ends pointing to Alex.

He isolates himself from his friend cause he knows he hurt Marty. He knows he can be dangerous and in his stupor might unknowingly, unwantingly harm Marty again.

Sometimes its better to miss a friend than trouble them with your presence and hurt them again and again. I shall miss my friends too.

Hang on...this is not the end.

Alex is Marty's best friend isn't he? He knows Alex more than himself. He knows its not Alex's fault. He works it out that Alex must be feeling lone and lost and as confused as himself. He cannot let his friend suffer like that, can he? Its his friend out there who needs him NOW more than ever. So Marty hunts down Alex in that forsaken jungle.

Heard this line before? A true friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the lines.

Now thats what Marty does. And thats what my friend did to me. The most powerful lines are the ones that come straight from heart. Its "Bas kar yaar. Bahut ho gaya. Chalo lets get going" that scores over a well paraphrased oratory of how much you mean to me.

Well, this is for my friend for knowing me better, for trusting me even after all that I have done, for simply believing that I can be better.

Now thats friendship. I wrote this so I dont make the same mistakes again. This serves as testimony to my resolve to be better. I dont want to lose my friends ever.

Well,

My dear friend,

I mean this. I wont let you down.

I shall control my temper and my sharp tongue.